My hot amp sounds shitty! SOLVED/FIX'D

[CBA]

Hello dudes. This is just a basic general thread created to see if any of you may be able to offer advice or make a diagnosis so that I can get the problem remedied as soon as possible with very little trouble.

SO YEAH.

Played a show at the "famous" Blind Pig last night and my amp was like BLOOAARRRNNCCCHHHH. It's a Fender Blues Deluxe, USA, tweed style, 40W. I usually put it at about 2 on the clean channel for practice and shows... loud enough. But last night there was barely any volume at 2, and when I turned it up to like 3.5, it was louder, but the tone was distorted and almost like fucked-up digital sounding. So I kept my Big Muff on most of the time (which is TBT anyway), but when I cut that and just did some clean stuff, the sound was still just, you know, broken sounding.

I put new tubes in it (3 Sovtek preamps and 2 Groove Tube power tubes) at the beginning of the year or so... and they sounded greated. I played it again today, just like aroudn 3 or so, with my Squier Tele and Les Paul... sounds cleaner than it did last night, but still distorted when I play harder/louder.

Do speakers on amps die or blow all that often? Do you think it's a loose tube or a dead one? What happens when tubes die? I noticed that all of them are glowing orange straight down the line, with no anomalies.

Might be silly to ask for a diagnosis on it... but what do you think? It's a solid amp... so this is weird.

Anyway... thanks!

C

[dubkitty]

do you have any spare tubes, or old tubes, that you could swap in/out to test and see if your current tubes are defective? you can't tell from visual inspection whether a tube is bad, or going bad.

also check to be sure all the tubes are properly seated in the tube sockets, and that the reverb tank connections at both ends of the cables are secure. any of these connections being less than stable can mess things up big time.

if you've been running the amp at 2 to 3, a bad speaker seems very unlikely.

[MEC]

^ This.
(But if you don't have any documented proof from a reliable news source that your amp sounds bad I refuse to believe you. )

Swap the Preamp tubes out one at a time, turning the amp off while swapping, then back on to test.
This will hopefully lead you to the culprit.

[CBA]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck I gave all my tubes away to bronzetalon. I'm such a great guy.

I bet I could find a musician friend around here with a tube I could borrow for troubleshooting.

So you think it's probably a tube, hmm? That's a shame... these aren't even a year old. My previous ones lasted for about a decade.

Thanks for the TIPPAGE!


C

[Holy Schnikes]

When you have a volume issue like that, it's a safe bet the culprit is a tube. Regardless of age, those fuckers can go at any time. Just had power tubes shit out in less than a year...

As noted, seems your issue is probably in the preamp, which results in volume loss but an amp that functions regardless (usually). A failed power tube will generally take a fuse with it, shutting down and protecting the amp.

[dubkitty]

my experience with modern production tubes--by which i'm referring to 12AX7s and EL84s--is that about 12 to 18 months is standard life. old production/used-test-as-new/NOS tubes can last for years and years. [old man voice]they just don't make 'em like they used to.[/voice]

[Holy Schnikes]

You speak truth dubkitty. I'm guessing that quality control has fallen off as tubes are borderline obsolete with the exception of amps, hi-fi stereos, and whatever else Im unaware of. If military use was still thriving, I bet those shits would be more dependable.

I should note I follow all proper tube warm up and precautionary procedures, yet they still fail earlier than expected. At least they sound great before blowing up and costing me another $75...

[wsas3]

I'm hoping you biased the tubes when you replaced them? It could be a problem that has caught up with you...

[Holy Schnikes]

Fender amps will definitely require bias with power tube swap.

I'd check those preamps and if that don't straighten shit out, head to a tech for further assistance that won't potentially be fatal to you or your amp.

[D.o.S.]

I'd check those preamps and if that don't straighten shit out, head to a tech for further assistance that won't potentially be fatal to you or your amp.

He speaks the truth.

[dubkitty]

indeed. if you can't fix it with something simple, it could be something like a bad transformer or capacitor that you really don't want to fuck with unless you have expertise and know how to discharge the caps so they don't--literally--kill you.

[CBA]

Thanks ya'lls.

I just got a recommendation from a friend of mine for an amp guy that lives up the road a piece. I'll probably just take it to him and see what he says. I noticed that two of my preamp tubes have a little black like holder-in-place thing whilst the third one doesn't. I swear it was there when I put these tubes in... maybe it slipped out.

As far as biasing tubes, I've found that that's not something I can do myself. Do you think that these current tubes that I have can be biased successfully, or should I get an all new set and have those biased together?

THANKS!

C

[Holy Schnikes]

If it's a bad power tube, I'd just replace the whole set/quad/pair, whatever you have there. Seems when one goes out, the others aren't too far behind. May as well start fresh and bias a new, closely matched set, imo.

Strange about the preamp tube. Are you referring to the socket?

[CBA]

If it's a bad power tube, I'd just replace the whole set/quad/pair, whatever you have there. Seems when one goes out, the others aren't too far behind. May as well start fresh and bias a new, closely matched set, imo.

Strange about the preamp tube. Are you referring to the socket?

Not sure. There is just a little I think plastic black ring thing where you INSERT the TUBE (caps added for innuendo) into the socket... I think it's just to hold it in place a little better.


C

[Holy Schnikes]

Hmmm....

Tech should get that sorted as well, maybe an issue with that socket could be causing the problems? Maybe nothing at all?
Tube is well seated? That's strange.

Report back with results, please. I hate these types of threads die with no closure, just lingering questions.